Color screening in (2+1)-flavor QCD

Abstract

We study correlation functions of spatially separated static quark-antiquark pairs in (2+1)-flavor QCD in order to investigate onset and nature of color screening at high temperatures. We perform lattice calculations in a wide temperature range, $140\le T\le 5814\mathrm{MeV}$, using the highly improved staggered quark action and several lattice spacings to control discretization effects. By comparing at high temperatures our lattice results to weak-coupling calculations as well as to the zero temperature result for the energy of a static quark-antiquark pair, we observe that color screening sets in at $rT\approx 0.3$. Furthermore, we also observe that in the range $0.3\lesssim rT\lesssim 0.6$ weak-coupling calculations in the framework of suitable effective field theories provide an adequate picture of color screening.

48 pages; 33 figures